Arrow-Straight Circular Saw Cuts With or Without a Guide! Freehand or Track

A few months ago i made a video showing you how to make straight cuts with the jigsaw

but you'll use a circular saw much more often so today i want to show you how to

make a nice straight consistent cut with the circular saw both with a guide and freehand

if you want to know the only five power tools you need to create amazing projects a link is

down below i'm also closing in on two dozen free plans available for you to download

a link to those is also down below as i'm going through these methods let me know down in the

comments which one you use with your circular saw and if you end up finding this video helpful hit

the thumbs up button and subscribe to the channel i'm going to start with my preferred way to cut

straight with the circular saw and it's also the easiest but if you find yourself without

a guide i also want to show you how to get the straightest cut possible by cutting freehand and

i've got a technique that i've never seen anybody else use so stick around for that

when you're using this guide method the easiest thing to reach for is a straight edge of some type

now you can use anything you want as long as it is straight and it needs to be at least

about a quarter of an inch thick so that the saw base can ride up against it and it won't slide

over the top of it so something like this flat rule will not work once we found a good straight

edge to use now we want to measure the distance between the edge of the circular saw base and

the blade because the edge of the base will ride up against our straight edge and then we need to

know the distance over from that where the blade is actually going to cut and we want to measure

to the edge of a blade tooth because that's the edge of the cut and not the plate of the blade

we can write that measurement on the top of the base with a paint marker or a sharpie so that

we don't forget it make a mark at each end for the dimension of the wood that you want to keep

and then add the width of the saw base and make that mark at each end the straight edge then

gets clamped in place right on those second set of lines and i like to put the saw up there and

make sure it's going to cut where i want it to you probably noticed that technique can take quite a

while and it's susceptible to error because we're making several different measurements

and marks so let's talk about a couple of different ways to make a track guide for

the circular saw the first one is modeled after guides that are available for sale on the market

and it's specific to your saw the wonderful thing about this is that you simply measure and mark

for the piece you want and put the guide in place right on those marks and clamp it down that easy

the saw rides up against the fence and cuts a perfectly straight line i made a detailed video on

how to make one of these and i'll link that down below it only takes about 20 to 30 minutes but i

want to show you a similar way to build a guide that takes even less time and material to make

i start with a piece of solid 1 by 2 and drill a couple of larger holes into it and this allows us

to clamp the guide down without the motor of the circular saw hitting the clamps as it passes over

so then we'll take a piece of plywood or mdf with a straight factory edge and then glue and

brad nail that piece of 1x2 to that edge then i'll clamp it down and make a cut with the circular saw

and this gives us our zero clearance edge that shows us exactly where the blade will cut

and just like that we've got a makeshift saw guide that you can make on the spot

just about anywhere as long as you have some scrap wood

getting nice straight freehand cuts will take practice but you can get great results if you

know the technique the first thing you want to do is to get the saw in place you'll have the

most trouble starting the cut accurately because you don't have anything to reference the base on

you could be angled or tilted and not really know it you'll also want to account for the thickness

of the blade or what's called the kerf if you try and cut down the middle of a line you're going

to cut into the piece you want to keep and its measurement will be off line up your blades so

that the outside of the tooth touches your line on the waist side and that's the side you're cutting

away i use a technique that you don't have to bother with but it'll transform the way the

beginning of your freehand cut looks use a razor blade or a knife and cut into the piece in the

exact location of your mark now cut over into the wayside just a little bit wider than the saw blade

and make a notch between these two cuts this takes a few extra seconds but it gives you a flawless

way to start your cut without missing the mark and cutting into the corner of your work piece the

blade guard on the saw is designed to be pushed up by the work piece as you push through the cut but

this will result in you pushing hard into the cut and twisting the saw one way or another instead

i pull the guard up just enough to clear the work piece and hold it with my thumb then i can let go

of it after the guard is on the work piece or just hold it through the cut when you start the saw the

blade should never be touching the work piece back it up about half an inch start the saw and then

slowly push it into the cut airing on the waist side of your notch and then ease the blade over to

the line keep even pressure throughout and keep the saw steady once the blade is into the cut

because it's wide it will want to stay straight as long as you don't jerk back and forth or start

and stop as long as you push it smoothly through the cut it will stay basically straight to get

the straightest cut focus on the point where the blade is cutting into the work piece and never

stop pushing through the cut if you do stop as i mentioned before this is what contributes to

slight shifts side to side messing the cut up and making it wavy if it's possible plan the cut so

that you have continuous access to get all the way through the cut without stopping if you do have

to stop and reposition yourself make sure you keep the saw completely still as it winds down and then

carefully move into the next position so that you don't bump the saw carefully back it up just a bit

and then finish the cut this isn't the ideal way but sometimes you're just not able to make a long

cut in one motion the last thing i want to mention could be the difference between an okay cut

and one that could almost pass for square use a scrap piece of wood with a square edge and place

it flat on the work piece once the saw is in place push this makeshift fence up against the saw base

and apply light pressure toward the saw to keep it steady during the cut don't forget to check down

below for those links that i mentioned watch one of these videos next and i'll see you over there